Thursday, March 17, 2011

US involvement in Latin American Trafficking

Human trafficking is a global trade that generates over 10 billion dollars in revenue every year. The US State department estimates that nearly 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across borders worldwide for various reasons including ranging from forced labor to sexual exploitation. Latin American is one of the primary locations for human trafficking.It is estimated that nearly 1 million children in Latin America are domestic servants and are subject to various forms of abuse.This has forced a action from the United States to curb this rising dangerous trade. In response to rising trafficking the US State Department has issues annual Trafficking in Persons Report or TIP. The TIP has 4 levels. A country with a TIP level at Tier 4 has a severe trafficking problem, and the level of trafficking severity increase with increase each level. This report ranks and categorized countries based on how severe the trafficking problem is. Since its inception the their has been notable improvement in Latin American countries. In the the 2006 TIP report only the Belize, Cuba, and Venezuela were in the Tier three area. While other countries in the region had a relatively decent TIP rate compared to previous years. Though over Latin America did have the most Tier 3 than any other region. Sanctioned are supposed to be imposed on countries who have a poor ranking but as was the case with countries like Ecuador and Brazil few times are any penalties exacted except international disapproval. United States also passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which give aid to foreign countries to combat human trafficking. Which provides about 361 billion dollars in aid

The US has provide over 94.7 billion dollars in aid worldwide with with help going to support nearly 61 countries in Latin America receiving nearly 29% of overall worldwide aid.[4] Programs to help trafficking in Latin America are headed by such departments in the US such as Department of State, the Agency for International Development, Department of Labor, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[4] Among the top countries reaching US implemented programs are Mexico and Brazil. These organization set up events such as conferences, workshops, and public campaigns to raise awareness of human trafficking. Also in areas like Mexico the US has made a concentrated effort to work and set up programs with Mexican law enforcement to identify, arrest and detain traffickers and smugglers on the US-Mexican border. The program name Operation Against Smugglers Initiative on Safety and Security or OASISS concentrated efforts on these task and sought to improve communication between US law enforcement and Mexican law enforcement. A major problem encountered in Mexico is that

5 comments:

hilaray rodem clinton is doing such a fantastique job about human trafficking.Based on his experiance we can know that she went to thailand and have witnessed the prosetituitioinswho suffering from thailand.I hope the united nation can take serious measuremen t and action on this criteria